Abstract

A pair of shoes for being worn by a person so to enable the person to walk upon the surface of a bod y of water, the device consisting of e longated shoes made of floatable material, each shoe being sufficiently large so to support the weight of the wearer each shoe being provided with a fin tail so that t he shoe moves forwardly instead of slipping sideward and each shoe being provided with a downward extending fins or vanes on the underside there of so to allow maximum forward motion with a minimum of slipping the underside vanes in one form of the invention being stationary and in another form of the invention being of pivot able type so to retract into an inoperative position when the s hoe is moved forwardly and wherein the vane extend downwardly into the wat er for holding against the water when the shoe is intended to be stationary.

This invention relates generally to footwear. More specifically it relates to footwear for use upon water.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide a pair of flotation shoes so to permit a person to walk upon the surface of a body of water. Another object o f the present invention is to provide a pa ir of flotation shoes wherein the underside thereof are pro vided with downwardly extending vanes for holding against the water while a person tries to walk.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide pair of flotation shoes wherein the downwardly extending vanes in one form of the invention are stationary and in another form of the invention is retractable so that when the shoe is moved forwardly the vanes are retract ed to provide a streamline under side for more effective walking.

Other objects of the present invention are to provide a pair of flotation shoes which are simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture, rugged in construction, easy to use and efficient in operation

If the weight of an object is less than the weight of the displaced fluid when fully submerged, then the object has an average density that is less than the fluid and when fully submerged will experience force buo yancy greater than its own we ight. If the fluid has a surface such as water in a lake or the sea the object will fl oat and settle at a level where it d is places the same weight of fluid as the weight o f the object.

If the o bject is immerse d in the fluid, such as a submerged submarine or air in a balloon, it will tend to rise. If the object has exact ly the same density as the fluid, then its buo yancy equals its weight. It will remain submerged in the fluid but it will neither sink nor float, although a d isturbance in either direction will cause it to drift away from its position. An object with a higher average density than the fluid will never experience more buoyancy than weight and it will sink.

For example a ship w ill fl oat even though it may be made of steel, which is much denser than water, because it encloses a vo lume of air and the resulting shape has an average de nsity less than that of the water.

A floating object is stable if it tends to restore itself to an equilibrium position after a small displacement. Floating objects will generally have vert ical stabili ty, as if the object is pushed down slightly this will create a g reater buoyant force which unbalanced by the weight force will push the object back up . Rotational stability is of great im portance to floating vessels.

Given a small angular displacement, the vessel may return to its original position, move away from its original position or remain where it is neutral. Rotational stability depends o n the relative lines of action of forces on an object. The upward buoyant force on an object acts through the center of buoyancy being the centroid of the displaced volume of fluid.

The weight force on the object act s through its center of gravity. A buo yant object will be stable if the center of gravity is beneath the center of buoyancy because any angular displacement will then produce a righting moment